Chronicle golf columnist Steve Campbell reports that the Fed Ex Cup — the PGA Tour’s new series of tournaments intended to breath life into the lifeless end of the golf season — has entered the dreaded Tiger Chasm even before the first tournament of the new series has commenced:

They haven’t yet hit a shot that counts in the FedEx Cup playoff series, and the whole thing is beginning to look like the kind of idea that got Ishtar, Gigli and The Adventures of Pluto Nash on the big screen.
Woods doomed the FedEx Cup, which was a risky proposition in the first place, to irrelevancy by opting to skip the first round of the so-called playoffs. At a time when the PGA Tour desperately needs to drum up interest in a radical overhaul of its season structure, Woods invited massive disinterest by passing on this week’s The Barclays at Westchester Country Club. Not so fresh off victories at the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational and the PGA Championship, Woods insists he needs another week of rest and relaxation. [. . .]
. . . what kind of playoff system allows a competitor to duck either an opponent or a site and still win the championship? Answer: not a legitimate one. The tour is damned if Woods wins the Cup, because it exposes the playoff system in place as a sham. The tour is damned if Woods doesn’t win the Cup, or at least stay in contention until the very end, because he’s head, shoulders, knees and toes above the rest of the players in accomplishments and fan appeal.

Meanwhile, PGA Tour member Jeff Maggert of The Woodlands lays the blame for the Fed Ex mess squarely on PGA Tour headquarters and Commissioner Tim Finchem:

Maggert . . . says none of the touring pros are enthusiastic about the tour’s playoff.
“Probably half the players out here couldn’t care less about [the FedEx Cup],” he told Hardin. “The other half are indifferent.”
Maggert said tour commissioner Tim Finchem should take the blame for the indifference in the clubhouse.
“I hear a lot being written, but I don’t see anybody writing anything about Finchem,” Maggert said. “I mean, this was his idea. He really didn’t consult any of the players. He kind of shoved it down our throats and said, ‘This is what we’re going to do.'”

But dispositive confirmation that the Fed Ex Cup is in serious trouble is the fact that The Onion is already making fun of the concept. Note the following statement at the end of this article spoofing that Tiger Woods was annoyed that his three month old daughter was “looking the other way when he won” the recent PGA Championship:

Woods later stated, however, that he couldn’t find fault with his daughter’s apathetic feelings towards the upcoming FedEx Cup events, saying that he himself thinks of it as a forced and unoriginal attempt to inject excitement into the final part of the golf season.